Overclocking AMD X4 860K

mark63424 · December 4, 2016

I'm new to overcooking however I have researched it, and I am experienced with Windows, gaming and simple programming and PC building so I'm not a complete noob.

However after looking into oc'ing I decided to do it to my CPU as I want it to be at its best for when I get my new RX 470, currently I only have the stock cooler but I'm planning on getting an aftermarket air cooler soon. So yesterday I opened AMD Overdrive and followed what all the online tutorials suggested which was to keep increasing the multiplier until you are forced to increase the voltage because system instability or a crash would occur(each time I increased the multiplier I did a stability test). So I started out with the system defaults(37x multiplier @default Voltage)of course the system was stable so I kept the voltage the same but increased the multiplier to 38x; Ran a stability test then a CPUID benchmark and it was fine with a slight performance increase. I repeated this all the way up to 4.1GHz (I Daren't go any higher than 41x) still on the stock voltage and everything was fine. I ran benchmarks, stress tests and played GTA V for 3 hours with AMD Overdrive on my second monitor and It always stayed within the thermal margin Whilst under constant heavy load(which I think was caused by me not changing the voltage from stock). There has been a noticeable increase in performance in programs such as GTA V and Valves Hammer Map Editor (especially whilst compiling maps). Have I just been fortunate in the 'Silicone lottery'? Also what would be the performance gains of overclocking further?